Daily coverage from across the country, written for the expat community
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Ecuador's Superintendency of Companies ordered an external administrator installed at Granasa, publisher of two of the country's largest newspapers, after the company refused to hand over internal legal records. The Inter-American Press Society called it 'an intimidating act' of indirect censorship.
Informal moneylenders continue to charge usurious interest rates in Loja’s market economy despite government programs offering subsidized microloans — a problem that traps local vendors in debt cycles and affects the cost of goods for everyone, expats included.
Indigenous leader Marlon Vargas calls President Noboa's urgent mining and energy reform a threat to water, territories, and collective rights. The National Assembly has until March 2 to vote on the bill, and CONAIE is calling for unity against it.
Extortion rackets once concentrated on Ecuador's coast have spread to Quito neighborhoods including Carapungo, Calderón, and Solanda. Business owners report demands of $100 to $2,000 per month, and 62% of small businesses nationwide have paid.
Two armed men in motorcycle helmets robbed a café on García Moreno and Vía del Ferrocarril in Cumbayá on February 9, demanding phones and belongings at gunpoint. It's the second café robbery in five weeks in the valley — after the high-profile January 7 holdup at influencer Michelle Katz's Boker Tov café that left the community shaken.
Ecuador’s annual inflation rate hit a 20-month high in January 2026, driven almost entirely by a 20.79% spike in housing and utility costs after the government ended electricity and diesel subsidies. Food prices are rising too — plantains have roughly doubled, and the basic family basket now costs $822 a month.
Ecuador's tax authority is sending notifications to taxpayers with unfiled income tax declarations from previous years — some going back to 2019. Recipients have just 10 business days to respond, and the SRI's seven-year review window means old oversights can surface without warning.
An 'urgent' efficiency law working through the National Assembly would force Quito to slash current spending and could eliminate 5,000 municipal positions. Mental health services, community dining, animal welfare programs, and even Metro expansion plans are on the chopping block.
Aquiles Alvarez, the sitting mayor of Ecuador's largest city, was arrested on organized crime and money laundering charges and transferred to Latacunga prison. Over 50,000 people marched in his defense while a massive commercial building fire burned just eight blocks away.
President Daniel Noboa has been invited to a Trump-hosted Latin American presidential summit on March 7 in Miami, aimed at countering Chinese influence in the region. The U.S. also highlighted Ecuador's mining potential and signed a critical minerals agreement.
An international arbitral tribunal adjusted Ecuador's compensation obligation to Chevron downward by $5.7 million, landing at $215 million. The decades-old Amazon environmental dispute continues to drain government coffers in a tight fiscal year.
During President Noboa's visit to the UAE, Petroecuador and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company signed a memorandum of understanding for direct crude oil trade and refined product imports — cutting out intermediary traders.
